With the approach to November comes the Day of the Dead, or All Saint's (and Soul's) Day. Deco Belle Global Jewelry would like to shed some light on this celebration.

The celebrated Day of the Dead, as it's known in Mexico and most of Latin America as well as the Czech Republic, and All Saint's Day (Nov 1st), and All Soul's Day (Nov 2nd) is approached as a joyful event to celebrate and honor the lives of the deceased.

Throughout Mexico, the traditional mood is jubilant, with emphasis on celebration of the deceased. Offerings of the deceased's favorite food and beverage are left out in the homes as a welcoming gesture for the deceased. Time and meals are spent at the grave site of a loved one as a means to enjoy a meal with the loved one.

During the Nepali holiday of Gai Jatra ("Cow Pilgrimage") every family that has suffered a loss of a loved one within the previous year makes a construction of bamboo branches, cloth, paper decorations and portraits of the deceased, called a "gai."

Traditionally, a cow leads the spirits of the dead into the next land. Depending on local custom, either an actual live cow, or a construct made of paper maché or other materials, representing a cow may be used.

The festival is also a time to dress up in costume, including costumes involving heated topics of the day such as political comments and satire.

Free bookmark with every order! These lovely page keepers include a coupon code on the back, that never expires, making them even more valuable!

As always, with every purchase is included free gift wrapping. But now, we have upgraded our packaging to feature chocolate brown gift boxes, silver and white paisley gift tissue, and complimentary organza and satin ribbon.

As can be seen in these images, we are still debating which exact ribbon color shade to choose for the final wrapping. By the next couple of weeks all of the gift packaging should include the final color selection, until then, enjoy the varying (and we mean really close) shades of teal!

For our entire French jewelry collection, designed by Catherine Popesco, we include a certificate of authenticity, story card, and custom organza gift bag on each of our Paris items.Deco Belle brings you global jewelry at your fingertips!

In keeping with the spirit of last month's charity drive, Deco Belle Global Jewelry will donate 10% of all Venice Millefiori Murano art glass jewelry as well as Designo color resin jewelry proceeds in the month of November to aid hunger programs in America.

We have contacted the following two programs as we are determining where to make our donation. Please visit the sites if you would like to consider making a donation directly:

Feeding America, formerly known as Second Harvest, the nation's largest domestic hunger relief program.

Thanks to our customers who purchased Venice jewelry during the month of October, Deco Belle Global Jewelry has donated $175 to the Breast Cancer Research Fund. This is an organization which aims to achieve prevention and a cure for breast cancer in our lifetime by providing critical funding for innovative clinical and translational research.

10% of all Venice Millefiori Murano glass, Millacreli glass, and Designo colored resin proceeds were tallied for this donation, Deco Belle has augmented the proceeds for the donation of $175. There technically is one more day left in October, but we wanted to ensure that our donation was received by the end of the month.

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women in the United States (other than skin cancer), no matter of race or ethnicity. Each year, more than 182,460 American women learn they have this disease. For more links about breast cancer awareness, please reference our October 1st newsletter which contained a cache of information and resources.We will continue to donate 10% toward charity and are dedicating the November 2008 proceeds to aid hunger programs in America, please see our next blog article for more information.

In honor of Breast Cancer awareness month, for the entire month of October, Deco Belle will tally 10% of all proceeds from Venice collection sales to donate to Breast Cancer research.Deco Belle Global Jewelry will donate these proceeds to either the Breast Cancer Research Fund, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, or the BreastCancer site. Currently we are researching all three sites to see which would benefit most from our donation.

Instead of limiting our donation to just shop pink items, we've opened it up to our entire Venice collection from glacier blue turquoise handmade art glass to jet black contrasts with vivid colored jewelry, and every shade in between.

Shop any of our hand blown Murano glass Millacreli, Millefiori, and/or colored resin Designo Venetian silver jewelry, and 10% of the proceeds will go to the donation. No coupon code necessary, this includes all Venice sale items as well.